Comparison of Aldor and Scryers rewards

This article is meant to be a side-by-side comparison of Aldor and Scryers rewards, two factions located in Shattrath City. The article aims to make it easier for players to decide which faction they want to side and gain reputation with.

Note that while gaining reputation for either faction, you will also gain reputation with the Sha'tar until honored.

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When you first reach Shattrath City and are level 60 or higher, you are given a choice between two factions: The Aldor and the Scryers. Which you choose will have various impacts on you, not only on which faction rewards you can purchase, but also in which quests you might pursue. And while you can revert from one to another, it is best to avoid making a haphazard choice.

This page provides some a quick side-by-side comparison for how each faction may benefit a character. What this page does not do is tell you which faction you need to choose specifically. You are strongly encouraged to look at all the items before you make your choice.

According to the Game Statistics posted on the WoW homepage, players (on the week from July 16 to July 22, 2008) looted Sunfury Signets twice as often as Marks of Sargeras and Arcane Tomes 84% more often than Fel Armament. Similarly, 28% more Sunfury Signets were sold on the Auction House than Marks of Sargeras, and 56% more Arcane Tomes were sold than Fel Armaments. While this does not reveal data for prices, how often they are encountered clearly will affect Auction House prices.

Thus, obtaining rep items for Scryers appears to be easier and/or cheaper than obtaining Aldor rep items. Naturally, one could deliberately farm either faction's items and would likely encounter decent drop rates if farming the appropriate areas, but common player activities (especially daily quests on the Isle of Quel'Danas) seem to encourage the acquisition of Scryer items over Aldor ones.

The Scryers Hearth location on their tier is closer to the ground than the Aldor tier is, meaning that characters can run off it without taking the elevator (death is assured when jumping from the Aldor Tier to the main city ring without protection). The Scryers are also slightly closer to the flight master. Impatient players hence may want to consider the Scryers for these reasons. If you are a keen chef, both inns have fires (or braziers) that can be used for cooking directly outside the entrances. -- As a note, you could theoretically bind at the Scryer inn and then become an Aldor, however, the arcane guardians on the Scryer Tier are actively hostile to Aldor players, just like the Vindicators on Aldor Rise are actively hostile to Scryers.

The Aldor Hearth location on their tier is connected via a tunnel directly to Nagrand making it rather convenient at the 64 - 66 range to get to Nagrand (though there is also the flight path). Hunters and those interested in Kurenai/Mag'har faction could find the ease of access convenient - this exit can also be reached by Scryers but you must use the main elevator (not the one between Scryer and Aldor rise) and be careful to not get too close to any Vindicators.

Inscriptions are shoulder-slot enchants that can be applied by anybody to their own armor. Both factions' greater inscriptions carry the same stat types, but give higher values to one stat. Aldor items tend towards damage, healing, attack power and dodge. Scryer items tend towards Crit rates, MP5 and defense.

Both factions offer various crafting patterns and plans that are Bind on Pickup which become available to you as your reputation level increases. The items you craft, however, are Bind On Equip, allowing you to make them for characters other than your own. However, only the Scryers currently offer an Alchemist recipe.

The Shattrath jewelcrafting trainer is located on the Aldor Rise. This is not a problem if one levels jewelcrafting before choosing Scryers, but it does offer an incentive for progressing jewelers to choose Aldor.

The Scryers' Tier is home to a master enchanting trainer. Enchanting was once only trainable to 300 by going into Uldaman or talking to the Master Enchanter on the Scryers' tier, but it is now possible to train to 300 from any Enchanting trainer in a major city.

In addition to faction purchases, Aldor and Scryers also offer different quest lines with different rewards. For example, the quest Shutting Down Manaforge Ara is available for both factions, but offers vastly different rewards:

Each faction has its own quest chains in Shadowmoon Valley and Netherstorm. In some cases, the item rewards for equivalent quests are the same for both factions. In other cases, there are different rewards.

You may be in for some tough choices. While the Scryers staff provides huge healing, Aldor gear provides substantial Intellect and MP5 gear. The shoulder enchantments are the reverse, Aldor providing substantial healing and Scryers providing more MP5.

The Scryers appear superior in some ways. They provide a very good spell hit trinket, shoulder enchants with stats more in favor of crits and an epic spell damage ring. In contrast, the Aldor provides a spell damage staff with intellect that lacks stamina, and a low-stamina, high intellect chestpiece with decent damage.

[Socrethar's Girdle] is reward from Turning Point, the final quest of a long Scryer chain (and not available from the Aldor). With 23 agi, 21 stam, 20 hit rating and 48 attack power, it is significantly better than anything outside of heroic Black Morass or Karazhan for sword and mace Rogues. Take this into consideration, because the Assassination Armor set does not include a belt. However, Sword rogues should notice the [Vindicator's Brand], which is comparable to [Blinkstrike], but can only be bought at Exalted with Aldor for 200g. This sword is also significantly better than any sword outside of raids and Arena rewards.

Another key factor to consider is your trade. If you are training enchanting or tailoring, you should probably choose Scryer, since you can access all enchanting training on the Scryer's tier, and also more easily purchase the BoE patterns.

In the end, most of the rare and probably epic rewards from the two factions are likely to get replaced by other better raid loots or PvP rewards. Therefore, eventually most people will find that the only differences are the shoulder inscriptions and different proc for the Shattered Sun Pendants.